The Many Definitions of Community

A MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL ANN V. KLOTZ

Community. Often the first word used to describe our school, Laurel has long been known for its powerful sense of community—a term that is hard to put into words. Is our community our students and faculty? Our parents and alumnae? Is it the beautiful Lyman and Butler Campuses, our culture of care? Our traditions that connect one generation to another?

It is our mission and values, our many points of view and perspectives, our spirit of innovation balanced with our love of tradition. Certainly, the pandemic has challenged our notions of community. During the early months of the pandemic, as we migrated to Laurel School@Home, we missed being in the same place at the same time. Physical distance and masking help keep us safe, but those protocols don’t make it easy to gather or even to recognize one another in the corridors. Nonetheless, in our parent, faculty and staff, and student survey undertaken last spring in preparation for the School’s next strategic plan, the word community surfaced at the top of every list as one of Laurel’s greatest strengths. Now, though we are all back in school, we have yet to resume our all-school assemblies—I look forward to when we can see the whole school assembled together in the Tippit Gym! For the first time in the school’s history, we have four grade levels based at the Butler Campus. How can we continue to cherish the palpable sense of community that defines Laurel even as we continue to live with COVID?

I undertook an informal survey of Upper School students on the second floor one recent afternoon. When I asked an array of Seniors and Sophomores to define community, Laurel-style, they offered the following answers: a deeper sense of connection than a superficial relationship; family; the word we use to shorthand what we love about Laurel; finding a way to come back together even when we fracture; sisterhood; inviting; bonds that connect us; school and learning; kindness.

I love these responses. The words and phrases students offered demonstrate the culture we strive to foster at Laurel. Our work with Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls (LCRG) reminds us that strong relationships are an important aspect of resilience. When students know they are seen, respected and valued, known well by adults and peers, they often do better in school. While academic excellence is the cornerstone of a Laurel education, what we now understand is that ineffable qualities such as community can make achievement more accessible. Happy girls do better in school.

Our commitment to connection remains strong, despite masks. At summer’s end, as school began, we hosted a number of outdoor gatherings: a welcome for new families, a Black family gathering, grade-level retreats, class parties on the playground, and a Trunk or Treat a few weeks before Halloween. Our Laurel School Parents Association hosted a family movie night at Butler that offered families a wonderful way to be together. We know our parents, like our students, are hungry to meet one another and spend time together, so they valued our in-person curriculum nights. Though we limited those to one parent or guardian per child, connecting with teachers in person and meeting other parents was a terrific opportunity to build relationships–relationships are, as we know, at the heart of community.

As the temperatures dropped and first Delta and then Omicron arrived, we returned again to more virtual structures: affinity groups for students and parents organized by interest and Senior Speeches Zoomed into classrooms and viewed by Advisory groups. We have relied on our evolving protocols to keep our community safe, and our students have been magnificent—masking, maintaining physical distance, eating in designated spaces, handwashing and staying home when ill! Now, a high percentage of the Laurel community is vaccinated. We know our protocols work and we are glad for the extra layer of protection vaccines provide.

A Laurel mantra, created as a result of the pandemic, is “Don’t take risks that put others at risk.” A thoughtfully reimagined Junior Chapel in November allowed parents to attend and the rest of the Upper School to watch on Zoom in Advisory groups. We even found a way to produce our beloved Song Contest, after a year’s hiatus, and to share it with parents and alums. Live theater returned to Laurel this fall with Twelfth Night cast members using rapid tests to be sure they were COVID-free before taking off their masks on stage. In the January 2022 Middle School production, Project: Brave, girls did perform masked.

Buddies and Big/Little Sisters have resumed, connecting students across grade levels. A snowshoeing party at Butler brought Fifth and Sixth Graders together on a snowy day in January.

In a curious way, a number of alumnae have benefited from Zoom and are gathering in meaningful ways that do not require travel to Cleveland. Though we love welcoming them in person, we are delighted by the host of new opportunities they have devised to gather since March 2020: class conversations, book groups, panels sponsored by the Alumnae Association on entrepreneurship, flower arranging, self-care, real estate, cooking, and antiracism. Last spring, in honor of our 125th anniversary, we invited the “Dormies” to Zoom to share their reminiscences. (Perhaps some of you did not know that Laurel offered a boarding component up until 1974!) More recently the Distinguished Alumnae Committee gathered via Zoom for its deliberations, allowing us to include alums from a wide geographical range!

Our notions of community have evolved during the global pandemic and from the school’s founding. We know we are a stronger, better community because we are not all the same; we celebrate the wide variety of opinions shared in the school. We know complex world problems are better grappled with and solved when people offer multiple points of view—and we believe in building that skill starting when children are very young. We are more than a group gathered to learn and to teach. Our students wear their uniforms proudly, glad to cheer on their teammates at athletic contests or on stage. We do not take for granted what it means to be members of a school united by a mission and values statement that is well understood and that guides our work each day.

Head of School Ann V. Klotz

Additional photos from the print piece: